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Pentagon plans to rein in spending

Posted: Friday, January 07, 2011

By Anne Flahertyand Anne Gearan

WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than a decade defined by costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon announced plans Thursday to freeze its ballooning budget, forcing the military to shrink the Army and Marines and increase health care premiums for troops and their families.

The Pentagon says it can stop asking for annual budget increases in 2015, adjusting its spending only for inflation. The last time the Pentagon's budget went down was in 1998.

The plan is aimed at helping the nation whittle away at its massive deficit. But the proposal, which requires $78 billion in spending cuts and relies on another $100 billion in cost-saving moves to cover urgent requirements, is tied to two assumptions: that the war in Afghanistan will end on time and that Congress will agree to plans to cancel popular job-making programs and charge retired military families more for health care.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that projections about what the world will look like so far in the future have a troubled track record.

But the Defense Department is "not exempt" from belt-tightening just because of its charge to defend the nation, he said.

"Looking five years into the future is through a pretty cloudy crystal ball," Gates said. "Any number of these decisions could be reversed."

Although it took Gates more than 30 minutes to read an explanation of the reductions, he called the proposals modest and realistic.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he thinks the Afghanistan war will shrink as planned in 2014, when the United States and its allies want to hand over control of the country's security to the Afghan government.